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By Coulomb explosion, we mean the energetic dissociation of a multiply ionized molecule into atomic ions. The final kinetic energies of the atomic ions are determined mostly by the classical electric potential associated with the internuclear separation of the ionized nuclei just prior to the explosion.

Most of the correlation events in Fig. 2, about 75%, involve doubly-charged ions only. The rest of the events involve at most one triply-charged ion. This was determined by comparing correlation values from three different correlation images containing only doubly charged ions, only triply charged ions and a composite with both doubly and triply charged ions. Detail of this analysis will be presented in a future paper.

Science (1)

Other (3)

Most of the correlation events in Fig. 2, about 75%, involve doubly-charged ions only. The rest of the events involve at most one triply-charged ion. This was determined by comparing correlation values from three different correlation images containing only doubly charged ions, only triply charged ions and a composite with both doubly and triply charged ions. Detail of this analysis will be presented in a future paper.

By Coulomb explosion, we mean the energetic dissociation of a multiply ionized molecule into atomic ions. The final kinetic energies of the atomic ions are determined mostly by the classical electric potential associated with the internuclear separation of the ionized nuclei just prior to the explosion.

Figures (4)

Fig. 1. The Coulomb explosion image of NO2 (inset) and surface plot
showing the momentum distribution of
Nq+ and
Oq+ ions (75%
q=2 and 25% q=3). This distribution
contains 500,000 laser pulses, each centered at 800 nm, with a pulse width
of 100 fs and linearly polarized (horizontal in the inset) with a peak
intensity of 1015 W/cm2. The vertical distribution is
composed of Nq+ ions while the
distribution parallel to the polarization axis is a mixture of both
Nq+ and
Oq+ ions.

Fig. 2. This figure explains how to read a correlation image. The concentric circles
and spokes in the upper left panel divide the momentum distribution image
(the same as that displayed in the inset of Fig. 1) into sectors. The grey arrow indicates
labeled ions (i.e., a subset of ions with a narrow
momentum distribution moving downward, 6 o’clock); the white
arrows indicate the correlated sectors (ions moving toward 2 and 10
o’clock). The right panel shows the correlation image for the
Coulomb explosion where all three atomic ions are ejected simultaneously.
This image shows the momenta of the charges ejected simultaneously. The grey
(white) arrows indicate the final momenta of the labeled (correlated)
charges. The correlation image in the lower left panel is the difference
between averaging only those frames that have a nonzero count in the labeled
sector and the average of all 500,000 frames.

Fig. 3. Two correlation images for the Coulomb explosion of CO2 taken
under the same conditions as Fig. 1. We label O ion moving toward 3
o’clock in the left image and those moving toward 6
o’clock in the right image. We isolate linear explosion events on
the left and bent events on the right.

Fig. 4. Two correlation images for NO2 taken from the same data set as Fig. 1 showing a sequential dissociation-channel
(left) and a simultaneous dissociation-channel. The sequential channel
involves an explosion of NO2 into NO+O ions followed
by the explosion of the NO ion. Pictured on the left is the explosion of NO.
The explosion dynamics is asymmetric, the center of mass of the two
correlated charges is not the center of the image.